How to Remove Software in Linux

Question: How do I remote software that I installed from my Linux dedicated server?

Answer: The answer to that question depends on how you installed the software in the first place. Once you establish how and where the software has been installed, you can determine how to remove it.

1. Package Manager – Most software should be installed with a package manager like YUM or Apt. If that is the case, you remove it with the normal command for the package manager:

yum remove [packagename]
apt-get remove [packagename]

2. Manual Deb, RPM, etc – If you installed a distribution package manually, you can remove it manually or use your package manager to remove it.

3. Binary Archive – If you were given a tar.gz or similar package with binaries inside, and you unpacked them to a directory, simply remove the directory. If the package had an installer program, try using that to uninstall it.

4. Source – If you compiled the software from source and used “make install” to install it, removing it may be more tricky. If you still have the source files, you can simply run “make uninstall”. Otherwise, you will have to find out where the files were installed and remove. They may be in several directories.